Latest Posts

Do You Need Travel Insurance?

October 23, 2013 10:47 am Published by

  As we settle into our Fall season, for many of us plans start expanding for sunny destination get-aways during our winter season.  Or maybe it is your Spring Break family trip, or that European trip next summer.  Before you finalize your travel plans, give some thought to the need for travel insurance.   What can Travel Insurance Cover? The standard Travel Insurance will cover the following Emergency Medical conditions ( see this sample from Manulife’s Travel Insurance). Read the fine print, as not all insurers cover the same costs.  Also a cheaper premium travel insurance might come with a larger...

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Spousal Loan Strategy – 1% But For How Long!!??

September 7, 2013 10:48 am Published by

  In Canada, the taxation of married or common law partners is still based on an individual basis.  There are some tax credits that are couple or family based (a good listing of available tax tips for couples is found here http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/eng/consumers/lifeevents/couple/manage/taxes_couples-eng.asp), but fundamentally each member of a couple is taxed individually.  For couples that have one spouse with significantly higher taxable income than the other, and where the higher income spouse earns or may in the future earn taxable investment income, a Spousal Loan Strategy may be a good fit. In a Spousal Loan Strategy, the higher income spouse loans...

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Introduction to Estate Planning

July 23, 2013 10:49 am Published by

  Estate planning is a key component of a healthy financial plan.  In fact, if you were to view your financial plan as a house that you are building, Estate Planning would be comparable to the house foundation:  if the foundation is weak, the house will ultimately fall. Estate planning looks at how the financial assets that you have accumulated over time will be distributed to your beneficiaries.  Beneficiaries typically include your immediate family, but can extend to charities and other individuals. The most common tool in the toolkit for estate planning is the Will.   A Will is a legal...

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Planning for your Child’s Education

June 23, 2013 10:50 am Published by

  Articles that highlight the skyrocketing costs of sending your child through post-secondary education are fast and furious (here is a recent article from the Financial Post).Forecasted costs to put a child through an undergraduate degree typically top $100,000 (if the student is living away from home), with $50,000 to $60,000 forecasted to be just the tuition and book costs in the not too distant future. So we have been encouraged to save for our child’s education.  Typically we use a Registered Education Savings Plan (“RESP”). The RESP offers many advantages, some of which include: 20% Canadian Government grant on qualifying contributions (typically...

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Do You Have Enough Insurance?

May 14, 2013 10:50 am Published by

Reviewing someone’s insurance portfolio involves looking at what form of life and disability insurance coverage they current have.  An individual may  have a group benefit plan with some life insurance available as a multiple of earnings, or a set amount per month of disability coverage.  There may  also be coverage available, in the right circumstances, under a combination of Employment Insurance (EI), Workers Compensation Board (WCB) and Canada Pension Plan (CPP).   Some will have mortgage protection coverage offered through their bank.  Few have their own individual life and/or disability insurance coverage to compliment other coverage available. It can be quite...

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Select Personal Tax Tips

March 23, 2013 10:51 am Published by

  As we are full-on into personal tax return season, I wanted to give a quick listing of some recent tax topics that I think may have some broader application.  For each noted tax topic, I’ve also provided links to the Canada Revenue Agency website, which has more information available. 1.       If you are married or in a common-law relationship and in receipt of any pension income from a company pension plan or a registered retirement income fund, check to see if a Joint Election to Split Pension Income is to your advantage.  Where the spouse receiving the pension income is...

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RRSP Tips and Traps – part 2

February 23, 2013 10:52 am Published by

  Here is a continuation of my RRSP Tips and Traps blog.  Part 1 dealt with the tax savings and deductions of RRSPs.  Part 2 is a potpourri of other RRSP Tips and Traps. Savings for Retirement!? In Part 1 of my RRSP blog, we discussed the tax savings elements of RRSPs.  However a main reason RRSPs were created was to give us a mechanism to save for retirement, especially those of us we are not associated with any other retirement savings plans outside of government sponsored plans.  We are taking some of our net worth and deciding not to...

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RRSP Tips and Traps – part 1

February 19, 2013 10:53 am Published by

  We are now well into the 2013 RRSP season, where many turn attention to the fact they haven’t or should be making an annual RRSP contribution.  I have put together a 2 Part Blog on RRSP that I hope people find informative when they consider their RRSP contributions for the current and future years.  Part 1 is about the initial tax savings and tax deductions.  Part 2 will come out later this week and lists a series of other tips and traps to consider when making your annual RRSP contributions. Tax Savings Why do we do RRSPs?  A few...

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Optional Group Insurance versus Individual Insurance

January 6, 2013 10:53 am Published by

You may be participating in a group benefits program through work, which offers the ability for you to elect optional group life insurance coverage for you and your family.  This is a convenient way to obtain additional life insurance coverage for your family, but it is not always the optimal way.   The benefits of optional life insurance through a group plan include: Flexibility to elect a life insurance amount based on a multiple of your salary or a specific dollar value; If you leave your employer, you normally have the option to convert this group life insurance coverage into...

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Why you should not get mortgage insurance with the bank

December 14, 2012 10:54 am Published by

CBC Market in Denial – Mortgage Insurance If you need insurance to cover your outstanding mortgage balances, contact me to assess the various options available to you to ensure you understand the pros and cons of each option.  Where your medical history permits it, it is generally preferred to have your own non-bank insurance policy which has been issued only after the insurance company has completed its medical underwriting in advance.  Not only will you gain a greater certainty that your insurance coverage is in place in the event of a claim, you may also experience a lower cost of...

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